The Universe

The Universe, also known as the Cosmos or was the entirety of space, and everything it contained, including all the Galaxies, Stars and Planets. The Universe was created in around 13,750,000,000 BBY in the Genesis Event, and grew in size ever since that time. During the time of the Galactic Republic, the Universe was approximately a trillion light years in size, although only around 45 billion light years of it could be observed due to the finite speed of light.

Size and Evolution
Main Article: Genesis

The Universe was created in the Genesis Event 13,750,000,000 years prior to the Galactic Republic. The cause of Genesis was unknown, although some postulated that intelligent beings had designed the Universe and created it deliberately.

Before Genesis, the Universe was subatomic in size. However, it grew to the size of a star system within around 100 seconds, and was 10,000 light years across within 10 minutes. The Universe continued to grow in size after this.

As the Universe expanded, it cooled, allowing for energy to condense into matter, which became galaxies and Stars. Within 750,000,000 years, the Galaxy had formed. Over 300 billion galaxies were thought to exist in the observable Universe, equating to 120 sextillion (3x10^21) stars and 300 sextillion (3x10^21) planets. It was a common saying that there were far more planets in the Universe than there were grains of sand on Tatooine.

Cosmologists believed that the Universe would continue to exist for trillions of years, growing larger and dimmer as hydrogen fuel for stars was used up.

Morphology
Many believed the Universe to be infinite in size. However, the Universe was in fact finite, at around a trillion light years in size. The vast majority of the universe was not directly observable, since the light from distant regions would never manage to reach the observer. The only part of the Universe that was observable was a sphere around 93 billion light years across.

Despite being finite in size, the Universe had no physical borders or boundaries, since it was 4-dimensional. This nature made it almost impossible for most beings to visualize the Universe. Were a craft to travel a trillion light years in a straight line, it would eventually end up where it started, having circumnavigated the 4-dimensional Universe. This was similar to the effect that could be achieved by travelling across a Planet's surface in a straight line. After enough time, the traveler would end up where they started.